The invention relates generally to the field of digital graphics albums, and, more particularly, to the searching, acquisition, and insertion of related digital images and video clips into a digital graphics album.
With the advent of digital imaging in the marketplace, and the broad acceptance of digital cameras, as well as broad utilization of digital images in Internet applications, the volume of commercial and consumer held digital image files has increased dramatically in recent years. Much like the problem of a closet full of shoe boxes of randomly filed photographic prints, in the digital image and graphics environment, there are computer xe2x80x9cshoe boxesxe2x80x9d full of randomly stored digital graphic images. This leads to problems in locating and categorizing digital graphics files.
A traditional photo album is a place to store photographic prints. Pictures were placed in the album and often times notes and annotations were added to identify pertinent information about the pictures. In recent times, the electronic photo album has been developed to store digital graphic image files much in the same way as the traditional photo album. Eastman Kodak Company has developed digital graphic album applications, such as the Kodak Picture Page software, which allow a user to organize digital graphics images into album pages. Typically, users organize images by dates and times, places, subject and so forth. Such software allows the user to annotate the images by entering text, or other data, describing the image.
Traditionally, picture albums contained photographs taken by a user, and perhaps photographs given to them by others. In the digital environment, however, the sources of digital graphic materials is much more diverse. Of course, digital graphic materials may come from a user""s digital camera. They may also come from scanned photographic prints that are converted to digital format. They may also be created electronically, such as with graphic software or photo editing software. In addition, there are private and commercial sources of graphical images. These include stock photo agencies, and shared photo resources that provide the sharing of images over networks, such as the Internet. User can now access digital graphical images on the Internet and download them into their personal computer. These images can be placed in a digital graphic album and be made an integral part of the album.
As a user builds a digital graphic album, there are many choices as to how the images will be organized and annotated. Naturally, digital graphic album software applications allow the user to do this manually. But because of the power of computers and software, software suppliers have added features which make organization of images in digital graphic albums more automated, easier and more flexible. In addition, the kinds of things that can be stored in a digital graphics album has increased. For example, video clips can be placed in the album as well as still images, computer generated graphics, and other digital materials. In the case of a video image, typically a key frame is selected for static display, identifying the video. When a user desires to watch the video, the key frame is selected and this causes the software application to play the video clip.
Modern camera systems have evolved and some now provide a means of generating annotation data for digital graphic images. Cameras may have a built in clock which time stamps the images. Some allow entry of textual data that can be associated with the digital images. Some even include a global position systems (GPS) receiver which can mark images with the geographic location of the camera at the time the image is exposed. Some allow for voice annotation. All of these kinds of information can be fed to the digital graphics albuming application to be used to annotate the digital graphics materials.
When the digital graphics materials are added to the digital graphics albuming applications, users can manually add annotation data to the graphics materials. These, combined with the aforementioned automatic annotation materials allow the final, arranged, album to be more rich and full in its context and presentation, which prompts a viewer""s memory and greatly expands the enjoyment of viewing such an album. Of course, the arrangement of such a wealth of information can be cumbersome and time consuming. Digital graphics albuming application suppliers have responded by providing features which automatically arrange digital graphics materials within such albums. Kodak Picture Page software is an example of this. The arrangement decisions can be based on the classical indicia, such as time, place, event, and so forth. Much of this information is derived from the annotation materials associated with particular graphical materials. After the graphical material is preliminarily arranged by the software application, the user can make modifications to suit personal tastes.
An aspect of the subsequent arrangements that a user may make to a photo album is that the user may desire to add additional images to complete the album. As was discussed earlier, the sources are many and varied. This presents a problem to the user because the user may know what kind of images are desired, but not know where to obtain such images. For example, suppose a user has returned from a vacation in France and has a collection of images and videos from the vacation. These are placed in the digital graphics album, annotated and arranged. Upon review, the user realizes that there are several images of the user in the vicinity of the Eiffel Tower, but no images of the Tower itself. Or perhaps the user knows that during the vacation, a major news story broke about France, and the users desires a video clip for the album. Through some amount of search, the user may find such digital graphics materials, but such searching is cumbersome and time consuming.
Consequently, a need exists in the art for an automatic way of identifying, searching and selecting digital graphical materials for use in supplementing digital graphics albums.
The need in the art is addressed by the apparatus and methods of the present invention. In an illustrative embodiment of the present invention, a method of adding graphical material to a digital graphics album is disclosed. The method includes specifying reference material in a digital graphics album and extracting annotation data from said reference material. Then, processing the extracted annotation data by a natural language processor to produce search keywords. User directive data is then received and processed by the natural language processor to produce additional keywords. Both the keywords and additional keywords are prioritized followed by querying a graphical material database through a network connection in accordance with the keywords. Then, receiving from the database at least one resultant graphical material and selecting one or more of the resultant graphical material for insertion into the digital graphics album. However, if none of the resultant graphical materials is selected, specifying at least one reference graphic material indicative of a desired search result and processing the reference graphical material to produce search criteria that are image content descriptors. Using the image content descriptors, querying an image content database through a network connection, and receiving from the image content database at least one resultant image. Having received the resultant image or images, selecting at least one of the resultant images, and inserting the selected resultant image in the digital graphics album.
In addition to the method described above, an illustrative apparatus of the present invention is disclosed. The apparatus is a digital graphics albuming system for searching a graphical material database, and the apparatus includes a display, an input device, a network interface, a memory, and a processor coupled to the display, the input device, the network interface and the memory. The processor, which is inherently a general purpose machine is programmed to implement the forgoing function of the present invention, and, in one illustrative embodiment, the processor is operable to store a digital graphics album in the memory, and the processor is operable to recall a portion of the digital graphics album and display the portion of the digital graphics album on the display. The processor is operable to receive a selection of reference material from the input device, and the processor is operable to process this reference material to produce search criteria. The processor is operable to couple the search criteria to the network interface and access a graphical material database there through, and thereby enabling a search that returns at least one resultant graphical material. The processor is operable to receive at least one resultant graphical material from the network interface, and the processor is operable to display the resultant graphical material on the display and to receive a selection input specifying at least one of the resultant graphical materials from the input device. The processor is operable to store the selected resultant graphical material in the memory as a part of the digital graphics album.
These and other aspects, objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood and appreciated from a review of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and appended claims, and by reference to the accompanying drawings.